1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus, which has a bending section at the tip side of the insertion section of the endoscope, and has a pulling apparatus for pulling control wires stretching out of this bending section.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-135021 filed on May 13, 2003, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-151485 filed on May 28, 2003, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, endoscopes have become widely used that can observe internal organs in a body cavity by inserting an elongated insertion section in the body cavity, and can perform a range of medical treatments using medical instruments inserted in a medical instrument channel as required. Furthermore, industrial endoscopes are used for observation, inspection and the like of internal damage and deterioration in boilers, gas-turbine engines, pipes in chemical plants and the like, the bodies of automobile engines, and the like.
For an example of this type of endoscope, there is an electric bending system endoscope, which has a bending section at the tip side of the endoscope insertion section, and bends the bending section by pulling control wires stretching out of the bending section using a motor.
There is a type of electric bending system endoscope that has a drive unit that uses a motor arranged on the processor side (control unit incorporating a camera control unit (hereunder CCU)), and a pulling apparatus for pulling control wires arranged in a connector section of the endoscope, wherein by the connector section being connected with the processor, the driving force of the motor is transmitted to the endoscope side so that the bending section can be bent (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H05-293076).
In such an electric bending system endoscope, the transmission of the driving force is performed in a connecting section between the drive unit and the pulling apparatus, which are connected together by fitting together a male body formed from a shaft body, and a female body consisting of a hole.
Furthermore, there is a type of endoscope in which the bending section performs bending operations using control wires, wherein a driving force can be transmitted to an endoscope side power transmission section by connecting the endoscope side power transmission section with the motor arranged in the bending motor control unit, and bending operations of the bending section are performed by controlling the pull of the control wires connected to the endoscope side power transmission section using the transmitted driving force (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined patent Application, First Publication No. H06-105800).
Moreover, there is a type of endoscope in which the bending section performs bending operations by control wires, wherein there is provided a rotor to which the control wires are connected, and a roller which makes contact with this rotor to transmit the driving force of the motor (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. S61-122619).